Dobies said he and Burtch were appointed to bring transparency to the board.

"I don't think it was ever meant to be a long-term appointment," Dobies said. "The concern was that there wasn't a sense of cooperation between the city and the housing commission. We wanted to see more transparency from the commission."

On April 24, his last day on the board of commissioners, Dobies filed 14 FOIA requests — hoping to get more information about former executive director Herman Hill's actions as director — after multiple attempts to get the information from commission employees was ignored.

"I was getting agenda packets the day before a meeting that had no information about what it is we were voting on," he said. "It feels like everything was covered up. It's like they expect us to execute contracts and sign checks without any background information."

Interim Executive Director Kim Truman responded to Dobies' FOIA requests May 1, saying the information would cost the City Council member $813.

Derek Dobies(File photo)

"It would be like if I went to Pat (Burtch) as a City Council member asking for information and having him charge me for it," Dobies said. "That's simply ridiculous."

The board voted 3-2 Wednesday to waive the fees and have the information provided to Dobies "as soon as possible." Orthaus, Stark and Gerald Montgomery voted in favor of waiving the fees. Davis-Dye and former board president Arlene Robinson voted to keep the fees.

"Dobies knew he wouldn't be a board member when he FOIA requested the information," Davis-Dye said. "We're allowed to ask for fees associated with finding the information."

Truman said the requests are taking "a lot of man hours and a lot of time."

"This shouldn't be a fight to get information," Dobies said in an interview with the Citizen Patriot. "If you have nothing to hide, there shouldn't be a pushback like this."

One of the main points of information Dobies is searching for has to do with former JHC Executive Director Herman Hill's severance package.

Dobies said it's a possibility that Hill, who currently serves as the executive director of the Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority, was serving as the SMHA director at the same time he was the director of the JHC.

"If this is true, he shouldn't have been paid a severance," Dobies said.

According to JHC meeting minutes from Feb. 20, Hill was still serving as executive director at that time. According to an article on cantonrep.com, Hill was set to join SMHA on Feb. 11.

Hill accused city officials – including Jackson Mayor Martin Griffin and City Council – of character defamation, a hostile work environment and racial discrimination in March, following his resignation from his position.

Dobies said Hill's attempts to threaten him and others won't curb his desire for the truth.

"Being called a racist isn't going to stop me from trying to figure out what's going on," he said. "The mayor wanted to put people on the board that would dig. Now that we've kind of got a handle on what's going on at the JHC, and there's starting to be more transparency, we're heading in the right direction."

Contact Will Forgrave at wforgrav@mlive.com or 517-262-7554. Follow him on Twitter at @WillForgrave.